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Why.......?

first, i am a big fan of AGD. the products, costumer assistance and customer interactiveness is great. i just have one question. why does it take AGD so long to release a product? i know the x-mag is technically realeased but well...you know....another item, tear drop sluggos... i want to know why AGD doesnt find a way to get their products out faster? i know it is a small company but then why not hire more people? idk maybe im way off base but..idk....

JSip@rochester.rr.com
"wow they musta had some mad gats popin ya up fresh boy" -Nick O Time

Re: Why.......?

Originally posted by la690 first, i am a big fan of AGD. the products, costumer assistance and customer interactiveness is great. i just have one question. why does it take AGD so long to release a product? i know the x-mag is technically realeased but well...you know....another item, tear drop sluggos... i want to know why AGD doesnt find a way to get their products out faster? i know it is a small company but then why not hire more people? idk maybe im way off base but..idk....

How can you hire more people if you don’t have the funds to support their pay? They actually just recently had to let some of their staff go.

Also, do you realize that virtually none of their products are MADE by them? (As in the actual parts.) They are designed by them, made by companies who specialize in the particular part, and then assembled by them.

And if you think about it, for a company their size, they have actually put out a good number of products in a relatively short amount of time…. If they even come out with only ONE new product a year, it is great… and they exceed that.

They are caught in a catch 22 on actual product manufacture and availability. So, all and all, they don’t do too bad. Sure, if they had more staff and a bigger budget they could get things out faster and make more of them…. but they don’t . I am sure that Tom would however not turn down a generous donation of a few million dollars to help them out.

But be happy… they are now farming out things (or should I say letting other companies make them) to other companies (such as new bodies and stuff) which should help make more products available to the public… which is a good thing.

There also may be a question of perception. Tom has shown us whats "in the works" before they are ready to ship. We wait patiently (and not so patiently) for the products. This gives the impression its taking a long time. He could keep us completely in the dark until he had a boatload to ship, but then we wouldn't have much say in the final product.

more preproduction(as in before the release of it) of a product so they can sell tons when they release it results in more risk. more risk means more chance to lose money. I can respect AGD wanting to play conservatively

Originally posted by Mook564 I am more then willing to wait for a quality product then a thrown together pile of $#!^@^&*

Are you saying that Spyders are thrown together crap? I beg to differ. They are a low cost marker. And for the price you get a decent product. There are many levels and price ranges for almost every product, and that included paintball markers. And Spyders are FANTASTIC markers for their price.

Lets talk about the SLUGOS specifically. YOU made it a BIG point that the body had to cover the valve. YEP got to have that! Wasn't good enough the way it was so we listened. We redesigned it, requoted it, it was MUCH more expensive, we had to meet with the machine shop on how to reduce the cost, they had to order new tooling (took weeks), then they had to reprogram it for the new tooling.

If you wonder why stuff takes so long ask yourself why you have to have it your way.

Originally posted by AGD Lets talk about the SLUGOS specifically. YOU made it a BIG point that the body had to cover the valve. YEP got to have that! Wasn't good enough the way it was so we listened. We redesigned it, requoted it, it was MUCH more expensive, we had to meet with the machine shop on how to reduce the cost, they had to order new tooling (took weeks), then they had to reprogram it for the new tooling.

If you wonder why stuff takes so long ask yourself why you have to have it your way.

AGD

It's okay Tom, we appreciate what you and the AGD staff do for us, even though some of us might seem unappreciative. Take your time Tom, all we ask is that the product is well made!

AGD and AGDE are to separately owned and operated companies, if I'm not mistaken. Why would AGDE want to send some of its precious X-mags over here, when they can sell them in Europe and not have to pay for shipping charges.

Hey, gve Tom a break! He works really hard to come up with ideas that we all like, and he probably spends many late nights testing everything so that we'll have anything to complain about later. Tom, you do a great job, we all support you, and you give us more and more reasons why AGD rocks soooooo much harder than any other company. Keep up the good work, and don't feel like you gotta rush!!!!

la690 asked a valid question as I have wondered the same thing. I personally would like to know more about AGD the company...past and fututre. I wish AGD could mass produce the xmags and fill up the market....along with sluggos, ule grips, x-valves and no-rise bodies. I am in line for all of the above.

One of the points of these boards is to educate. I have a lot of respect for Tom for listening to his customers and taking the time to give us answers. Thanks AGD.

This might come out weird but here I go:
Why not buy some plants, or send work to locations with cheaper labor? I don't mean create sweatshops in Mexico, but there are capable machine shops in Taiwan and other places that can make quality products in quanity. Obviously we know of the knockoffs that come out of Asia (we all saw the recent thread on it) but from what I here those Fockers (like Folex/Rolex, right...) work fine and are made of the same aluminum that their state side counterparts are made of. It seems that most paintball manufacturers are located in the US and the prices of their markers would be cheaper if their plants/factories were in cheaper locales. Then again their might not be enough demand in the paintball industry to justify the costs of buying a factory in one of these areas, or getting products shipped back and forth, and deal with the logistics of getting them materials, training the laborers how to make a X-Mag, etc. I'm just wondering why not, if so, or w/e.

many name brand paintball companies DO have their products manufactured overseas in cheaper labor areas. which in reality I feel are knock offs on their own. the new kids coming into paintball gobble up the stuff cause it has a "NAME BRAND" on it not ever knowing it was made in a sweet shop and then complain when it breaks down and their are no one locals to fix it.

Originally posted by SHAZAM-AGD many name brand paintball companies DO have their products manufactured overseas in cheaper labor areas. which in reality I feel are knock offs on their own. the new kids coming into paintball gobble up the stuff cause it has a "NAME BRAND" on it not ever knowing it was made in a sweet shop and then complain when it breaks down and their are no one locals to fix it.

what ever happened to "AMERICAN PRIDE" ??????

It is still there, but when you have to really compete on a global level you have to use global resources and what is best for you economically. Also, not everything that is made in a “sweat shop” is “cheaply” made. That is a fallacy that makes me laugh. I have seen some stuff made right here in the good old USA that is total crap…. and it was made by AMERICANS.

And how on earth can you call a part made out of the same materials, with the same equipment only located in a different country and the machines run by different people, “knock offs”? LOL That is just silly. That would be like saying that if you had a plant in Ohio and moved it to Texas because you could run it more cost effectively there, that the products coming off the line are “knock offs” of what they were when they were made in Ohio. LOLROF

How good a product is does not depend on WHO made it, or WHERE the parts came from. It depends on the quality control used and the company behind the product. We now live in a global business world. And a lot of folks are forgetting that the lower wages paid to foreign workers in foreign factories may be virtually nothing to US, but to THEM it is quite often quite good money. Think of it like here in the good old USA… If you made $15,000 a year in New England you would be destitute, but in Louisiana you could actually survive quite well (or at least could have when I used to live there.. LOL).

It is not an issue of “American Pride”, it is a matter of economics. The other issues are simply ignorance and prejudice. Would we like everything to be made in the USA? Sure! But if it isn’t, that does not instantly make it a bad product or of less quality.